Title Character

Born to a wealthy man who was later widowed, her stepmother, Lady Tremaine, was jealous of her beauty in comparison to her own daughters. She was forced to work as a maid under her care after her father died, and she wanted to go to the royal ball that was to be held by Prince Charming. With the help of her Fairy Godmother, she was able to meet and fall in love with the Prince, until the stroke of midnight forced her to flee before the magic of the Fairy Godmother broke, leaving behind only a glass slipper.

Adaptation Dye-Job: Her original design gave her strawberry-blonde hair, but the TV shows, the dolls, the backpacks and so forth have her with clean-blonde hair. They also changed her dress, which was silver in the movie, to blue in everything else sold with her in it.

Almost Kiss: With Prince Charming, before she's interrupted by the clock striking midnight.

Beware the Nice Ones: Turns out even a Disney Princess has her limits. In the third movie Lucifer learns this the hard way when Cinderella sends him crashing off of the pumpkin carriage into the lake.

Cinderella: Bad kitty!

Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: She's the blonde to her two stepsisters (a brunette and a redhead). Interestingly, by the sequels the evil one is the brunette.

Cinderella Circumstances: Of course. With her parents dead, her stepmother and stepsisters treat her cruelly and force her to live in squalor and do all the household chores for them while they live in luxury.

Damsel in Distress: This is more obviously invoked when she is locked in the tower room. In order to get to the ball, first she needs the help of the mice, and then the fairy godmother. And technically the prince saves her from Lady Tremaine's clutches by making her his princess.

Damsel out of Distress: She does her best to be competent and self-reliant as often as she can, and only accepts help when she has no choice. Most of the time, Cinderella helps herself—doing all the chores on top of fixing up a dress, making sure she can go to the ball, whipping out the slipper to show the duke.

Dark and Troubled Past: After her father died, she spent roughly twenty years being emotionally abused and treated as a slave by her step-family.

Deadpan Snarker: Particularly nice for one, but has a snarky sense of humor nonetheless.

Cinderella: Maybe I should interrupt the..."music lesson".

Determinator: Though Tremaine's demands mean that attending the ball will increase Cinderella's workload (on top of her already being solely responsible for cleaning an entire mansion), she accepts them readily.

Friend to All Living Things: Specifically to her legion of mice, but she also is friends with birds, a dog and a horse. Aside from the cat, Lucifer, she is friends with all the animals. She even tries to find some good in Lucifer, although she fails.

Girl in the Tower: In the final act, she is locked in her tower room, where she had to live after her father's death.

The Girl Who Fits This Slipper: Subverted; the slipper breaks before she can try it on. Fortunately, however, she was smart enough to keep the other shoe, and being able to produce its match does more to prove her identity than just fitting the slipper would have done (although the Grand Duke tries it on her anyhow just to make it official).

Gorgeous Garment Generation: The scene where her ruined dress is transformed into a sparkling silver one is a very iconic scene for the movie, the line, and Disney itself.

Hair Decorations: She wears a bow and head scarf in her peasant outfit, a bow headband with her pink dress, and a silver headband with her silver gown.

Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Strawberry blond, but otherwise she's beautiful, young, kind, determined and patient. This trope could possibly explain why she was made outright blonde in the merchandise.

Happily Married: She and Charming are shown to have a close, loving, and playful relationship.

Karmic Jackpot: Protecting those legions of mice from Lady Tremaine's traps sure came in handy.

Loose Lips: In the third movie when she admits that she was the princess in front of the Stepmother (not that she didn't already know), causing her to take the other slipper from Cinderella and drop it, causing it to break.

Magnetic Hero: She overcomes the story's conflicts by remaining trustworthy and thoughtful enough that even animals (and prey animals, at that) are willing to help her- and as story tradition dictates, the 'little people' overcome the Big Bad by uniting and working together.

Mama Bear: Cinderella shows her protective nature to Jaq and Gus in the third movie.

Nice Girl: Absurdly so. It pays off in the end, though. She is kind, thoughtful, and compassionate.

Pink Means Feminine: The dress the mice made for her, and it's crossed with Doomed New Clothes. And in the sequel, she wore a pink and blue Palette Swap of her iconic ball gown. The dress itself was intended to look very girly and old-fashioned, in contrast to the more elegant silver dress.

Plucky Girl: Refuses to appear less than cheerful in front of her horrid family and always has a smile for her animal friends.

The Pollyanna: Possibly her most notable trait is her determination to stay cheerful and hopeful.

Proper Lady: Like the other classic-era Princesses (Snow White and Aurora), Cinderella is a perfectly demure and gentle young lady.

Rags to Riches: Since Rags to Riches are often called "Cinderella stories", that's a given.

Sacred Hospitality: She may not be the lady of the house anymore, but she does her best to stop Lucifer from torturing its new arrivals.

She Cleans Up Nicely: She gets two moments like this. The first is a disapproving one from her stepfamily when she shows up with the modified pink dress. The second time is of course when the Prince sees her in the ballgown Fairy Godmother gives her.

Shipper on Deck: During the third segment in Cinderella II she tries to get Anastasia and The Baker together.

Silk Hiding Steel: She puts on a stoic smile and cheerful demeanor every day in front of her oppressors, never letting them get to her despite their abuse.

Took a Level in Badass: In Cinderella III. She does a backflip out of a demonic carriage, and rides horseback to crash her own wedding.

True Blue Femininity: Her nightgown and the dress she wore as a child. And, of course, her iconic ballgown tends to be blue in merchandise. Though as fans are wont to point out, her ballgown is actually silver and white in the proper film.

The Unfavorite: One of the very early examples and more or less the Trope Codifier. She has a Wicked Stepmother who treats her like shit and uses her as her personal slave, while her two stepsisters are spoiled brats who get everything they want.

Unkempt Beauty: Even when her dress is ruined by her stepsisters, she still looks beautiful. Also shown in the third movie when her wedding dress and hair are ruined again and she still keeps her beauty.

Abusive Parent: Not only with her stepdaughter (physical and mental abuse up the wazoo) but her own biological daughters as well (is very psychologically abusive to Anastasia in the sequels, and she's the reason why Drizella is an asshole as well. Also, Drizella is absolutely terrified of her.)

When she's first introduced, as Cinderella gets bulldozed through another morning in her own home, she comes across as at least not bullying her like her stepsisters, however content with keeping Cinderella "servant in her own house" (with the aforementioned stepsisters) she may be... but then, at a perceived provocation, any such uncertainty goes away when we meet our villain.

The Comically Serious: When Drizella and Anastasia snatch and fight over the letter from the Palace, she just takes it away with a nonchalant "I'll read this," as if this happens all the time.

Death Glare: She does one in first movie when she realizes Cinderella was at the ball and got the prince. The shadows even darken on her face.

Domestic Abuse: Lady Tremaine treats her stepdaughter as a slave and constantly belittles and mistreats her, a vice she encourages in her biological daughters. Moreso than Frollo, the Evil Stepmother is arguably Disney's most chillingly realistic villain, the one who lives behind closed doors and commits petty abuses against a helpless and innocent victim on a daily basis.

Faux Affably Evil: Judging by the tone of her voice, she is being cordial to Cinderella. Her words are abusive.

Gold Digger: Implied to be the reason she married Cinderella's father (and indeed, Drizella and Anastasia's). And since she was widowed twice while the girls were still young, this implies more...

Green Eyes: She has green eyes which are notably quite fierce and evil-looking when she is angered.

Hair-Trigger Temper: While she openly prides herself on "self-control", she will find a reason to turn nasty.

Hate Sink: Unlike other DisneyVillains, she is universally hated by Disney fans all over, thanks to her throughly despicable nature.

Hypocritical Humor: She admonishes her two daughters about self-control, only to snap at Cinderella when she interrupts with the royal ball letter.

I Gave My Word: However, she is very specific about what words she uses exactly. When she says that Cinderella can go to the ball, she very clearly states if she can finish all her chores and if she can find something suitable to wear. When Cinderella surprises Tremaine by revealing she has finished her work and has a dress, rather than go back on her word, all she has to do is point out the beads Cinderella is wearing to get her daughters into a manic frenzy when they think Cinderella stole from them.

Drizella: Mother, do you realize what you just said?! Lady Tremaine: Of course. I said "if."

It's All About Me: A textbook example; all she cares about is getting the status she believes that she deserves.

Jerkass: She's a thoroughly unpleasant person, and manipulative to boot.

Smug Snake: Lady Tremaine's patronizing arrogance makes her that much more hateable. The image above is one of her most iconic shots.

Sadist: Emotionally for the most part, but the physical variety is still implied.

Social Climber: This seems to be Lady Tremaine's major goal, and the reason she was attempting so hard to have one of her daughters marry the prince.

The Sociopath: Look at the signs. Domineering, manipulative, abusive, has no problem lying, derives pleasure from hurting/humiliating others, has a grandiose sense of what she's entitled to... Along with her general antisocial behavior, she may be a textbook example of this trope.

Took a Level in Badass: Tremaine spent decades as one of the few Disney villains not to wield any kind of evil sorcery, curses, poisons, etc. So the third movie gave her the nigh-omnipotent power of the Fairy Godmother. And she puts it to very good use.

Took a Level in Jerkass: She is worse in the sequels. In the third movie, she poofs Cinderella into a twisted pumpkin carriage with Lucifer as its human driver, and attempts to get Lucifer to kill Cinderella. Especially heinous because up until that point she was satisfied with just making Cinderella's life a living hell. She also has Anastasia posing as Cinderella to fool the prince. If anyone doesn't know, this is rape by deception... and worse, she tries to use one of her own flesh and blood daughters for such shit, and right when Anastasia is becoming more and more sympathetic.

Wicked Cultured: The textbook example of an evil, ambitious, but nonetheless, well cultured noblewoman.

Wicked Witch: Subverted; Part of her chilling awesomeness as a villain is that she has no magic powers unlike most other female Disney Villains yet still causes just as much misery and suffering without it. Of course once she gets her hands on the Fairy Godmother's magic wand...

Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Drizella (brunette), Anastasia (redhead) and Cinderella (blonde)note Compared to Anastasia's fiery bright red, Cinderella's strawberry blonde might be considered blonde, but it is itself bordering on red; compared to her own light blonde Adaptational Dye Job she got for the franchise, it might actually be considered red.

In the third movie she acts awkward when speaking to Prince Charming, occasionally gets excited, and is a bit of a klutz. The King finds this very sweet, rather like his Queen.

This trait (especially her clumsiness) increases notably when she meets the Baker, probably because the feeling of falling in love is unknown to her so makes her extremely awkward.

Anti-Villain: In the Disney animated sequels, Anastasia is shown to be a much kinder person than the rest of her family, basically bullying Cinderella out of peer pressure and being mistreated herself, as well as not entirely comfortable with her bullying and longing her own escape from her mother's abuse. She also finds redemption in both movies.

Ascended Extra: She's a minor antagonist in the first movie, but the main character of the segment "An Uncommon Romance" in the second movie, and the entire third movie is A Day in the Limelight for her.

Because You Were Nice to Me: In the third movie, the Prince and King treat her with genuine kindness and respect—which is apparently the first time anyone has done that to her (which is something of a Tear Jerker). It's that kindness that ultimately makes her go against her mother's plan and help Cinderella instead.

Calling the Old Man Out: Anastasia manages to pull this in the third movie, finally shaking off her mother's psychological abuse of her.

Character Development: In the sequels, she learns to stand up for herself against her abusive mother and be a kinder person.

Desperately Craves Affection: If her interactions with the King are any indication, she doesn't just want romantic love—she's never been shown any sort of kindness in her entire life, and deep down wants to be appreciated and cared for as herself. She initially thinks that finding a prince is the only way to do this, but eventually learns (with Cinderella's help) that it's possible to experience love and affection in other ways, too.

Easily Forgiven: Cinderella holds no ill will towards Anastasia for all her antagonism, actually helping her to get together with the baker. To be fair, Anastasia had shown quite a bit of Hidden Depths by that time. In the original Cinderella fairy tale, it was mentioned that one of the stepsisters was actually nicer to Cinderella than the other, if only somewhat. Also, in most retellings of Cinderella, one of the stepsisters, usually the younger stepsister, becomes nicer to Cinderella.

Similarly, in the third movie, the King allows her to keep his most treasured possession—a seashell he and his wife found on the day they met that symbolizes their true love—even after her involvement in Lady Tremaine's plot. As he puts it, "Everyone deserves true love."

Expository Hairstyle Change: She's nasty, and always has at least a part of her hair pulled back tightly with a ribbon, sometimes it's even all shortened up in artificial curls. Her Heel–Face Turn is marked by her literally letting her hair down (a Make Over orchestrated by Cinderella), and it turns out to be naturally wavy with a bit of side bangs. It symbolizes her "softening up" nicely.

Evil Redhead: In the first movie, she was as spoiled, nasty, and mean to Cinderella as her sister and mother.

Hidden Depths: Anastasia is revealed to have it in the third movie. For example she's more naive than people would think, actually longs to find love for herself, and is a female "Well Done, Son!" Guy for her mother.

Odd Friendship: Strikes up a genuine relationship with the King in the third movie, bonding over her clumsiness and the King's secretly romantic heart. Granted, he thought Anastasia was going to be his daughter-in-law at the time, but even after everything is fixed, the two remain close. She even gives him a huge hug to thank him for all he's done, and he reciprocates.

What You Are in the Dark: This trope is what ultimately saves the day in the third movie. Despite literally being made into a duplicate of Cinderella and about to marry the prince she's always dreamed of, she chooses to say "I don't" on the altar, realizing that she wants someone to love her as she truly is.

Dreadful Musician: When Lady Tremaine is practicing music with Drizella and Anastasia, Drizella is shown to be a rather unpleasant singer, but not for lack of trying—she's on key and everything—but her voice is just so nasally, that it makes an otherwise pleasant song like "Sing Sweet Nighingale" rather grating sounding, especially compared to how Cinderella is shown singing it not a few moments later. Lucifer is so revolted at the singing, that he covers his head under a pillow and then leaves the room altogether.

Pet the Dog: She did have some degree of care for her biological sister Anastasia, even being visibly shocked by her mother's cruel treatment of Anastasia in the ending of the aforementioned segment in Cinderella II.

Shadow Archetype: Drizella represents what Anastasia could've been had she not made a Heel–Face Turn and continued to be a nasty stepsister under her cruel mother's rule.

Took a Level in Jerkass: In the third movie. Despite her minor Pet the Dog moment for her sister in the second movie, Drizella is at her absolute worst in A Twist in Time. She flat-out suggests to her mother that they beat Anastasia at one point.

Yes-Man: Drizella in the sequels shows more shades of this towards her mother, though it is later shown that this is not just because Drizella is spoiled rotten and despicable in her own right, but because Tremaine threatens her.

Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He thought that Cinderella needed a mother figure, and playmates around her own age, and thus married Lady Tremaine. And when he died, his daughter was left with her abusive step-family.

Princely Young Man: The prince of his kingdom who gives a sort of regal-ness when he first appears.

Rebel Prince: According to the King, he's this. He turns out not to be wrong — in both the original film and A Twist in Time, he disobeys his father's wishes or orders on several occasions, mostly as a result of his love for Cinderella. Additionally, in the original film, he was shown unamused by his father's attempt at matchmaking when he threw a ball in hopes of having one of the invited young women catch his son's eye, romantically. As such, he was seen yawning sarcastically, rolling his eyes, and glaring at his frustrated father at the start of the iconic evening.

Satellite Love Interest: He has slightly more screen time than The Prince in Snow White, but like Snow's prince, he ultimately represents more of a goal than a person—there were deleted scenes that gave him more of a personality, but they were cut from the film. Disney noticed this and fleshed him out in the third movie.

Single-Target Sexuality: By his father's account, Prince Charming never seemed interested in relationships. And despite being gushed over by numerous women, he remained neutral. The exception? Cinderella.

Spoiled Sweet: Interestingly, despite his position in power and royal status, he is far from shallow and is shown to be rather accepting of those around him, no matter their position or background, and seems to judge people more on their personalities and overall character. For example, in a deleted scene, he's reintroduced to Cinderella after she fits the slipper. While surprised that she was a servant, he accepted her immediately.

Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a bit hot-tempered and has some violent tendencies, but he really loves his son and wants him to be happy.

The Matchmaker: He does everything in his power to set up his son with a suitable bride.

Morality Pet: For Anastasia in Cinderella III. The King would unknowingly become an inspiring influence upon Anastasia, whose mother was manipulating things so she would be the one to marry Prince Charming and not Cinderella. He taught her about love, using his love with his departed wife as an example, and even gifting her with the seashell his wife once gave him.

Deadpan Snarker: He has a few witty words to say about "true love" and such.

Foil: To the King. The Grand Duke's most striking quality is that he is extremely clumsy and usually calm, a direct foil to the King's romanticism and passionate temper.

Genre Savvy: Played for Laughs. His entire scenario on Prince Charming meeting the girl of his dreams is exactly what happens when the Prince meets Cinderella.

Grand Duke: You, Sire, are incurably romantic. No doubt you saw the whole pretty picture in detail: the young prince bowing to the assembly. Suddenly, he stops. He looks up. For lo... there she stands. The girl of his dreams. Who she is or whence she came, he knows not, nor does he care, for his heart tells him that here, here is the maid predestined to be his bride. [Unbeknown to him, the very events he has described have occurred as he spoke] A pretty plot for fairy tales.

Ascended Extra: They were just ordinary non-anthropomorphic mice in the original story, whom Cinderella collected from the mice trap for the fairy godmother to change into horses. Here, they are Cindy's loyal companions.

Adorkable: Both are quirky and comical, and very lovable at the same time.

Breakout Character: Jaq and Gus went on to star in many Disney comics after the movie had been released, with and without the rest of the cast. They were even brought into the Disney Ducks Comic Universe, and for decades they kept appearing in stories where they were house-mice on Grandma Duck's farm.

Shipper on Deck: They are nothing but supportive of Cinderella's romance with Prince Charming.

Simpleton Voice: Gus. You can tell Jaq is the brains of the duo simply by his voice, long before he shows his lack of stealth. Though Jaq uses a bit of simpleton speak by calling Cinderella "Cinderelly" and Lucifer "Lucify".

Beta Couple: To Anastasia and her Baker (in the 3rd segment of Cinderella II). Compare that both couples involve a make-over, instigated by "good" main characters (the mice vs. Cinderella); that both being made-over are frustrated by it (Lucifer HatesBaths vs. Anastasia is frustrated at her attempts to smile); that in both cases something (pink) is "stolen" from the female of the couple by the instigators to bring them together (Pom-Poms pink ribbon vs. Anastasia's purple hat that also has a pink ribbon attached to it); and that both couples are an Uptown Girl with a relatively lower class male. Contrast that the good baker inspires the relatively evil Anastasia to a Heel–Face Turn, while Lucifer and Pom-Pom are both evil and Lucifer feigns a Heel–Face Turn, but that's completely subverted.

Cat Stereotype: Played straight with Lucifer (who's dark grey and grey with a black head and off-white muzzle, and fits both black and grey cat stereotypes by being evil, fat and lazy); inverted with the white Pom-Pom (except for the "upper class" part).

Determinator: Both will stop at nothing to catch the mice. In Lucifer's case, even getting stuck in Drizella's dress (in the first movie) and being turned into a jack-in-the-box (in the third) doesn't stop him. Nor does becoming a human. Pom-Pom manically continues to hunt and attack Jaq when he is in human form, apparently thinking she can kill and eat a 6'2" humannote He is specifically mentioned to be that size in human form.

Butt-Monkey: Lucifer does get a few scenes that give him a bit of comedy. The best example is when Lady Tremaine, as the last item in her laundry list of chores for Cinderella, tells her to make sure Lucifer gets his bath. The Oh, Crap! expression on Lucifer's face says it all.

Hates Baths: As outlined in the Butt-Monkey section, he is horrified when Lady Tremaine tells Cinderella to give him a bath. In the sequel, the mice give him a bath to help him win over Pom-Pom. He doesn't look at all happy during it.

Purple Eyes: As often in the Disney world, the purple goes together with evilness. She accentuates them with purple eye-shadow and mascara.

Uptown Girl: While Lucifer (by extension from the Tremaine's) certainly doesn't come from a poor background, Pom-Pom lives in the royal castle, and so could be considered the cat equivalent of being royalty. When they first meet, she initially acts as if she's above him, snubbing him and acting haughty and all, but soon romance blossoms.

Bruno

Voiced by: James MacDonald; Frank Welker (sequels)

Cinderella's pet dog.

Beware the Nice Ones: Bruno is a sweet dog, but can give vicious bite when pushed. Just ask Lucifer.

The Dog Bites Back: Literally! In the beginning, Lucifer tricked Bruno into attacking him, which got Bruno in trouble. Come the climax, it was Bruno who took down Lucifer, enabling the mice to free Cinderella.

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